RIM Rises on Report BlackBerry Maker May Name New Chairman

A man holds a Research In Motion Ltd. BlackBerry smartphone at a mobile phone store in Mumbai. Photographer: Adeel Halim/Bloomberg

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the
BlackBerry smartphone, surged the most in almost two weeks after
a report said the company may name an independent chairman to
appease investors wanting to see a leadership change.

Former Royal Bank of Canada Chief Operating Officer Barbara
Stymiest, a RIM director, may be the leading candidate for the
job, the National Post reported today, citing unidentified
sources familiar with the situation.

A committee of independent directors is reviewing the
company’s leadership structure. The panel will report findings
by Jan. 31, RIM spokeswoman Marisa Conway said today by e-mail,
reiterating a previously stated deadline. RIM’s board will then
respond publicly to any recommendations, she said, declining to
address the Post’s report.

RIM is facing demands from investors led by Northwest &
Ethical Investments LP to name an independent chairman, a role
currently shared by co-Chief Executive Officers Jim Balsillie
and Mike Lazaridis, to inject fresh thinking. RIM is losing
market shares as BlackBerry models introduced in 2011 failed to
stem customer defections to Apple Inc.’s iPhone and devices
built on Google Inc.’s Android platform.

RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, rose 7 percent to $15.51
at the close in New York, the biggest gain since Dec. 21. The
stock dropped 75 percent last year.

The company’s share of mobile-phone subscribers in the U.S,
where sales declines have been steepest, dropped to 6.5 percent
in the three months through November, from 7.1 percent in the
previous quarter, according to research firm ComScore Inc.

Northwest & Ethical, which was promised a role in studying
leadership changes in exchange for withdrawing a proposal to
split the chairman and CEO roles in June, had yet to have any
substantial discussions about the review as of late November,
Robert Walker, Northwest’s vice-president of ethical funds, said
in an interview at the time.

If a report isn’t done by Jan. 31, Northwest will again
push for an investor vote on splitting the roles, he said then.